Crismatt, born on Christmas day in 1994 in Columbia, is a pitcher, not a thrower. Sunday, his fastball registered consistently at 87 miles per hour. Crismatt’s location was precise and his pitches had movement. He moved the ball in-and-out and up-and-down. As his been his pattern throughout his minor league career, batters struggle making contact with Crismatt’s pitches. The kid throws a huge breaking ball that registered as low as 66 MPH on the radar gun. His change-up was almost impossible to decipher as it moved towards home plate with a 79 or 80 mph speed reading.
Cole Sturgeon, Portland’s right fielder, led off the game with a double that landed just inside the foul line in left field, Crismatt was untouchable. The only other runner to reach base was Jordan Betts, and that was the result of the shortstop and second baseman colliding with one another on an infield pop up. After Sturgeon’s first inning double. only one Portland batter, third baseman Josh Tobias, hit the ball out of the infield, a short fly ball to left field.
Crismatt mixed his pitches like an alchemist. Here’s a rundown of his 9 strikeout pitches: Change-up swinging, Curveball looking, Fastball looking, Change-up swinging, Change-up swinging, Curveball swinging, Fastball swinging, Changeup swinging, Changeup swinging. It was a remarkable display of pitching artistry.
Here are some early season impressions of the Rumble Ponies. First, it appears the Met batting order decision to slot the teams top slugger in the 2 spot is an organizational decision. First baseman Peter Alonso, an offensively gifted player,went 2 for 4 with a double, a home run, and a drive that carried almost to the wall before it was caught. Ultimately, we may not see him in Binghamton too long.
Second, like what Mickey Callaway is stressing with the parent club, Binghamton is aggressive on the basepaths. On Sunday, it helped Binghamton manufacture runs.
After Tomas Nido and Kevin Taylor opened the second innings with back-to-back singles, Jhoan Urena lofted a deep fly ball to right field. Both runners tagged up and advanced to second and third. Nido would score the games first run when John Mora, who hit a solo homer in the fourth, grounded out to first base.
In the sixth inning, Taylor worked out a one out walk. Recognizing an opportunity to eke out a run, Binghamton manager Luis Rojas replaced Taylor with the 2017 Eastern League’s stolen base leader, Champ Stuart. Stuart was off and running on the second pitch. Rushing to make his throw to try to nab Stuart, Portland catcher Jordan Procyshen threw the ball past second base into center field thereby allowing Stuart to scampered to third. He later scored on an Urena sacrifice fly. That kind of opportunism closely resembles the kind of play Callaway is pushing at Citi Field.
Leading 4-0 with two outs and no one on base, the relief pitchers allowed four consecutive hits with three Sea Dogs scoring. Drew Smith, who ceded two of the four hits in the 8th, settled in during the final inning to fan two of the three batters he faced to close out the contest. With the win, Binghamton improves to 3-0 on the season.
